Passenger seat assemblies in motor vehicles sometimes incorporate an integral child safety seat into the backrest portion. These integral child seats are a great convenience in view of the bulky prior art strap-in-place child seat, and because the vehicle seat can be quickly converted between child and adult use.
Integral child seats typically include a rear cushion recessed in the backrest portion of the main seat assembly. A bottom cushion of the child seat pivots between a stored position and a deployed position. In the stored position, the bottom cushion is folded flat against the rear cushion, forming a flush surface in cooperation with the backrest portion of the seat. In the deployed position, the bottom cushion extends generally perpendicularly from the backrest to support the buttocks and legs of the child. Examples of prior art vehicular seat assemblies including an integral child seat may be had in U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,084 to Bart, issued Feb. 15, 1994, 5,290,090 to Bell et al., issued Mar. 1, 1994, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,216 to Gierman et al., issued Sep. 12, 1995.
The bottom cushion is typically retained in the stowed position by a friction-type latch which is overcome or released simply by a pulling force. For example, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,995 to Elton, issued Jan. 25, 1994, two latch levers freely release the bottom cushion of the child seat from the stowed position to the deployed position upon a simple pulling force applied to the bottom cushion whenever the backrest portion of the main seat assembly is in the upright use position. Also exemplary is U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,060 to Sponsler et al., issued Jan. 10, 1995, which discloses a child seat bottom cushion freely released to the deployed position whenever the backrest portion of the main seat assembly is in an upright use position.
A primary disadvantage of such prior art child seat assemblies which freely permit deployment of the bottom cushion, i.e., in which the friction-type latch is overcome or released simply by a pulling force, arises in a sudden deceleration condition where inertial forces alone can suddenly and unexpectedly cause deployment of the bottom cushion. This situation may potentially lead to the injury of adjacent passengers or animals.